Medicated pencil.



No. 819,901. PATENTED MAY 8, 1906. C. S. MASCHAL.

MEDICATBD. PENCIL.

APPLICATION FILED MAB.2, 1905.

anoenifoz armvmp ENTTE STATES PATENT oEEIoE.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented May 8, 1906.

Application filed March 2, 1905. Serial No. 248,093.

To all whom it may concern.-

Be it known that I, CHARLES S. MASOHAL, a citizen of the United States, residing at Kingston, in the county of Ulster and State of New York, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Medicated Pencils, of which the following is a specification.

My invention relates generally to surgical applicators and specifically to a medicated pencil.

The continuous use upon various persons of medicated pencils often results in infecting one person with disease germs of another. This is believed to be especially true as regards the styptics used by barbers, where the pencil is used indiscriminately upon customers without respect to their physical condition as regards contagious diseases or the possibility of inoculating one erson upon whom the styptic is later used wit the germ of some diseases with which some former customer is afflicted.

The object of my invention is to provide a medicated pencil such that it may be used once and only once, and is thereby rendered incapable of future use.

Afurther object of my invention is to provide a styptic pencil possessing advantages hitherto unattained, such pencilcomprising a wooden stick with a pellet of styptic material at one end, which when wetted disintegrates or dissolves before drying, thus preventing its further use.

By the use of porous material as a support for the medicated pellet I provide positively against the repeated use of the medicated pencil, -for if the material forming the pellet is not wholly dissolved by wetting or so disintegrated as to fall from its support, as occurs, the porous material will carry the moisture to the interior of the pellet, and thereby loosen it so as to prevent its reuse.

In the drawings forming a part of this application I have shown one form of styptic pencil resulting from the practice of my process hereinafter described, and in which Figure 1 is a view of my improved stpytic pencil in perspective, and Fig. 2 is a View in side elevation of my styptic pencil with the medicated pellet in section.

In the preferred manner of carrying out my process, I take a stick of any approved porous material, such as wood, and shown in the drawings at 1. The stick is first thoroughly sterilized in any desired manner. I prefer, however, to subject a large number of such sticks to a steaming process, continuing the application of the steam to the sticks for a suflicient length of time to completely sterilize them. One hour of such steaming serves to efiect this thorough sterilization. After the sticks have been sterilized, as above described, they are subjected to a dry heat,

preferably in a kiln, for a sufficient len th of time to remove all moisture absorbed (Turin the steaming process. With sticks of the size most commonly used the drying may be accomplished in twelve hours; but the length of time required varies with the size of the stick, the temperature, and other circumstances, as is understood. If subjected to sufficiently high dry heat, the steaming process ma be omitted, as all erms willbe destroye by the dry heat. ter being dried the sticks are dipped into a styptic material, as silver nitrate, alum, chlorid of iron, or other desired medicament maintained in a fluid or semifluid condition, so that a pellet, as

indicated at 2, will be formed upon one end of the stick. The sticks may be secured for dipping in any approved form of dippingframe, similar to the dipping-frame used for dipping matches. After dipping the medicament is hardened by drying, this being preferably accomplished by submitting the stick and its adhering pellet to a gentle heat.

While it is the principal purpose, as herein described, to pursue my process in the manufacture of a styptic pencil, it is to be understood that other medicaments similarly affectedby the application of moisture theretoas, for example, iron sulfate, zinc sulfate, or copper sulfatemay be substituted for the st tic composition and that the size, form, an? proportion of the stick and pellet may be varied from the form shown without departing from the spirit of my invention or sacrificing any of the advantages thereof.

While for the reasons above stated I employ in the preferred embodiment of my invention a'wooden stick, it.is to be understood that my limited thereto, as I may with some de cc of success employ cardboard, straw, ro led invention is not specifically I paper, metal, celluloid, or other inexpensive wetting, whereby the device is incapable of 1c material. re eated use.

Having thus described my invention, What 11 testimony whereof I afiix my signature I claim as novel, and desire to secure by Letin presence of: two-Witnesses. 5 ters Patent, is-

A medicated styptic pencil com rising a CHARLES MASCHAL' stick of porous material carrying t ereon a Witnesses: ball or pellet of slowly-soluble styptic mate- ARTHUR C. CONNELLY,

rial so attached thereto as to be removed by B. J. HORNBEOK. 

